Such elastic coupling elements are already known from the prior art. In this context, there is also talk of a coupling disk, such as that used in a drive train of a motor vehicle to connect two shaft segments for transmitting a torque. Such coupling disks and/or coupling elements have the advantage that they are capable of effectively compensating cardan movements of the two shaft segments relative to one another with good torque transmitting properties and a long lifetime and effectively compensating an axial offset between the shaft segments, up to a certain extent, with damping of rotational vibrations.
The document DE 10 2008 047 596 A1 discloses one such coupling disk known from the prior art, comprising a plurality of bushings arranged at predetermined angular distances in the circumferential direction with respect to a central axis M of the coupling element. A plurality of loop bundles are provided with this coupling disk, each loop bundle wrapping around two neighboring bushings and each bushing being wrapped by at least two loop bundles, one of which can be subjected to tensile loading over the shaft segments in the case of torque transmission and the other of which can be subjected to shearing load. For axial guidance of the plurality of loop bundles, a support arrangement is provided on one bushing. The loop bundles, the support arrangements and the bushings are embedded in a flexible rubber cover.
Furthermore, coupling elements of the type disclosed in the document DE 10 2011 013 332 A1 are known from the prior art. The coupling element described in this document comprises a loop bundle, which is wrapped around a pair of bushings comprised of two neighboring bushings. At least one support arrangement is provided to guide the loop bundle on at least one bushing. Neighboring bushings are additionally interlinked in a force transmitting manner by means of an additional loop bundle.
Although the known coupling disks and/or coupling elements have already been largely optimized with regard to their lifetime and the maximum torques that can be transmitted in continuous operation, there is still a need to reduce the installation space required for such coupling elements with at least uniform, maximally transmissible torques. In particular in the case of automotive drive trains, very little installation space is available for connecting the transmission output shaft to another shaft segment of the drive train, for example.